THE POPE AND THE PROFESSIONALS

Pope Francis

Pope Francis is three years older than me.  We’re not “boomers” born during the triumph of winning a World War and feeling entitled to the wave of prosperity that followed.  We are professionals who remember “professing” in the sense of living according to belief, living as if  what we profess is vital, a calling, a sacred duty.  His profession is ancient and invested.  Mine (writing) is humble and a little shabby -- even trite -- but I DO profess without quite being an academic "professor," because I’m not teaching what is known -- rather seeking what is not known.  Writing the way I do it is a minor profession.  Income level has nothing to do with it.

Today the meaning of "professional" has diminished to meaning “dressing up” and even manicurists claim to be professional.  The Montana legislature is afraid their prestige will be damaged if anyone who is not dressed "professionally" shows up on the floor.  If Jesus were to try to visit them, he would not be able to enter wearing his nightgown as he seems to, not even if he borrowed a necktie. 

I’ve been reading the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders and shaking my head because so much of it is not about “mental disorder” at all -- just attitudes that the culture doesn’t like.  The Pope’s list of “dis-eases” is so much more to the point.  So I'm going to repeat them here.  I don't mean them to apply to Cardinals so much as to authority figures and professionals here on the east slope, whether Indian chiefs or physicians.  At least Cardinals know how to dress.

One of the characteristics of professionals was supposed to be that they maintained the highest standards of behavior by monitoring each other.  This week we have heard about a doctor whose behavior sounds like beginning dementia and yet no other doctor will challenge him because of the lawyers, another set of professionals.  The lawyers leave it to the journalists -- are they professional?  I started to list Unprofessional People and stopped because it is too daunting:  judges who blame teenaged rape victims, doctors who threaten to kill nurses, legislators who lie and cheat.  Is it that we're looking more closely or that the times are too scary?  Is it a gaming mentality?

Has the art been swept for depictions of naked people?

The disease of feeling 'immortal' or 'essential'
'A curia that does not practice self-criticism, does not keep up to date, does not try to better itself, is an infirm Body'. The Pope mentions that a visit to cemeteries could help us see the names of many who 'maybe thought they were immortal, exempt and essential!'. It is the disease of those who 'turn into masters and feel superior to everyone rather than in the service of all people. It often comes from the pathology of power, the "Messiah complex" and narcissism'. 

The disease of excessive activity

It is the disease of those who, like Martha in the Gospel, 'lose themselves in their work, inevitably neglecting "what is better"; sitting at Jesus' feet'. The Pope recalls that Jesus 'called his disciples to "rest a little", because neglecting necessary rest brings anxiety and stress'.

The diseases of mental and spiritual 'petrification'

It is the disease of those who 'lose their internal peace, their vivacity and audacity, to hide under papers and become "procedural machines" instead of men of God', unable to 'weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice!'.

The disease of overplanning

'When the apostle plans everything in detail' and believes that, through this, 'things progress effectively, thus becoming an accountant. Good planning is necessary but without falling into the temptation of wanting to enclose or steer the freedom of the Holy Spirit... it is always easier and more convenient to fall back on static and unchanged positions'.

The disease of bad coordination

It is the disease of members who 'lose the community among them, and the Body loses its harmonious functionality' becoming 'an orchestra producing undisciplined noise because its members do not cooperate and do not live communally and have team spirit'.

The disease of spiritual Alzheimer's

That is a 'progressive decline of spiritual faculties' which 'causes severe disadvantages to people', making them live in a 'state of absolute dependence on their, often imagined, views'. We can see this in those who have 'lost their memory' of their encounter with the Lord, in those who depend on their 'passions, whims and obsessions'.

The disease of rivalry and vainglory

'When the appearance, the colour of  the vestments and the honours become the first objectives of life... It is the disease that leads us to become false men and women, living a false "mysticism" and false "quietism"'.

The disease of existential schizophrenia

It is the disease of those who live 'a double life, a result of the hypocrisy typical of mediocre people and of advancing spiritual emptiness, which degrees or academic titles cannot fill'. It often strikes us that some 'abandon the pastoral service and limit their activities to bureaucracy, losing touch with reality and real people. They thus create their own parallel world, where they set aside all that the others harshly teach' and live a 'hidden' and often 'dissolute' life. 

The disease of gossip and chatter
'It takes hold of a person making them "sowers of discord" (like Satan), and, in many cases, "cold-blooded murderers" of the reputation of their colleagues and brothers. It is the disease of cowards, who do not have the courage to speak upfront and so talk behind one's back... Watch out against the terrorism of gossip!'.

The disease of deifying the leaders

It is the disease of those who 'court their superiors', becoming victims of 'careerism and opportunism' and 'live their vocation thinking only of what they must gain and not of what they must give'. It might also affects the superiors 'when they court some of their collaborators in order to gain their submission, loyalty and psychological dependence, but the final result is real complicity'.

The disease of indifference to others

'When each one thinks only of themselves and loses the truthfulness and warmth of human relationships. When the more experienced ones do not offer their knowledge to the service of less experienced colleagues. When, because of jealousy or cunning, we rejoice in seeing others fall, rather than lift them up and encourage them'.

The disease of the funeral face
It is the disease of people who are 'scowling and unfriendly and think that, in order to be serious, they must show a melancholic and strict face and treat others - especially those, whom they think are inferior - with rigidity, harshness and arrogance'. In reality, adds the Pope, 'theatrical strictness and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity about themselves. The apostle must strive to be a polite, serene, enthusiastic and joyful person...'. Francis invites people to be full of humour and self-irony; 'How beneficial a healthy dose of humour can be!'

The disease of hoarding
'When the apostle seeks to fill an existential void in his heart by hoarding material possessions, not because of necessity, but only to feel secure'.

The disease of closed circles
When belonging to a clique becomes more important than belonging to the Body and, in some situations, than belonging to Christ himself. Even this disease starts from good intentions, but in time it enslaves all its members becoming "a cancer"'.

The red shoes had to go, but no one said anything about socks.

The disease of worldly profit and exhibitionism

'When the apostle turns his service into power, and his power into a commodity to gain worldly profits, or even more powers. It is the disease of those people who relentlessly seek to increase their powers. To achieve that, they may defame, slander and discredit others, even on newspapers and magazines. Naturally, that is in order to show off and exhibit their superiority to others'. A disease that 'badly hurts the Body because it leads people to justify the use of any means in order to fulfill their aim, often in the name of transparency and justice!'

Here's a guy who can't go on the Montana legislature's floor.

Doesn't meet the dress code.  And he's not American.